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I love growing herbs in with my flowers. When I grow Sweet Basil, the most common variety, I love to toss a small sprig into a pot of tea. It adds a delicate sweet spicey flavor.

African Blue Basil

This year I successfully grew two different varieties of Basil, African Blue and Cinnamon Basil. I'm sorry to say that I wasn't successful in growing a Pineapple Basil (beautiful yellow leaves, red flowers and spicey pineapple scent). Also this year, I let my basils flower and go to seed before harvesting. The flowers when dried have a more faint scent and flavor than the dried leaves do. So, since I grew varieties that are a bit more pungent than sweet basil in flavor, I thought that the flowers would be more fitting for my tea.

Cinnamon Basil

Basil has many of the same health benefits as sage and mint. So, it just makes sense to add them to tea in the same way.  Try different varieties, as like mints,  they have different flavors. I had added a couple of Cinnamon Basil leaves to a pot of white tea last night, after I harvested the flowers. It added a nice subdued touch of cinnamon to it. 

Sweet Basil is still my favorite basil to add to tea. I also prefer steeping freshly cut foliage in my tea, rather than dried... but if you want to be able to continue this through winter, drying is the way to go.

If you're like me, you drink tea at all hours of the day... right up until (and sometimes past) bedtime.  This post is about one of those nights...  I love to sit outside, while drinking my favorite cup (or pot in this case) of decaf or herbal, in the summer when the night bloomers are active and take in the aroma of night blooming jasmine... Some orchids, too, only emit their lovely fragrances at night.  One of my favorite night time specticals is the opening of my night blooming Epiphylum cactus flowers. 

It starts out like this...

Then begins to open...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the bloom grows larger...

You can literally watch it move and open...

 

When it is fully open, it resembles an angel with glowing white skirts...

There are diiferent varieties... Some that grow upright, like thick trees with many blooms at once.  There are several of these blooming now in my neighborhood.  Mine is a vine with flat segments...

In the center of our front yard hovers a multi-trunked matured olive tree. The olives began to drop in the early part of fall which gave me the impression that the tree only produced green olives.  Being a Kalamata and a Colossal Black Olives advocate, it was much to my delightful surprise when I researched the matter and found out that black olives are borne from green ones.

Nevertheless, I began to pick the green olives mainly out of impatience and excitement to being the curing process (figuring I would make my mistakes on the greens and perfect them with the blacks).

Picking was a ton of fun, as Will and I placed a blanket on the grass beneath the tree and engaged in a series of shaking branches, smacking with ends of broomsticks, climbing up on the limbs and hand-picking a TON of olives to fill a very large bucket.

We decided to water-cure this round.  First, we scoured the olives for any insect-ridden holes and tossed those out.  Next, we sliced each and every olive with a knife lengthwise to allow for the bitterness to escape and immediately placed each olive into a bucket filled with water to prevent from browning.  The olives need to be completely submerged in the water to prevent oxidation.  We then placed the bucket in the refrigerator. 

I changed the water daily for almost a month. This apparently helps clean the olives and lessen the bitterness level.  I really should have waited for the full month, but when I tried the taste of the water content it was to my liking so I packed them just 4 days shy of the month date.

So 26 days after picking, I packed the olives in jars with various ingredients and topped it off with salt water.  Some ingredients I used were citrus rinds, sage, oregano, rosemary sprigs, bay leaves, coriander, black pepper, garlic, sumac, hot pepper, chili powder, fruit seasoning, mustard seeds, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar.  Here we mixed and matched each jar with different combinations.  This process was so much fun that it dawned on us that we could even use a tea for added flavoring.  The tea that immediately came to our minds was Lapsang Souchong which would marinate the olives with a smokey flavor.

Each of us packed our own jar.  Mine contained Lapsang Souchong, lemon, bay leaves, coriander, and black pepper.  Will tried Lapsang Souchong with haleppo pepper, sumac, lime, white balsamic vinegar and garlic.  We are now in the process of refrigerating the curing jars for a couple of days and anxiously awaiting the results.

Stay tuned for the taste test!

Where would we be in the deadly summer heat without a tall glass of iced tea? This next series will explore the various methods of cooling off with some creative ways of utilizing tea. The first entry was actually inspired by a billboard I noticed while driving around town. It was an ad from McDonald's introducing their newest beverage: sweet iced tea. This prompted me to share with ya'll my Texan mother-in-law's amazing sweet tea recipe that she serves with every meal called Orange Mint Iced Tea.

Southerners serve sweet iced tea year round at home and even in restaurants.  When Southerners order tea in a restaurant, chances are they will get sweet ice tea. What's interesting is outside of the southern states, iced tea is typically served unsweetened or “black,” and most people have never heard of sweet tea.  What's genius about my mother-in-law's recipe is that its sweet factor is not so overpowering to make your face curl.  In fact, one sip of this refreshing "air-conditioner in a cup" and your sure to be hooked!

Orange Mint Iced Tea Recipe:

1. Pour 6 cups of boiling water over 1 cup of fresh mint leaves or one tablespoon of Morrocan Mint Tea.

2. Let steep for 15 minutes.

3. Stir in 3/4 cup sugar and 1 cup reconstituted orange juice.

4. Serve over ice with a sprig of mint.

Enjoy!
 

Ice cream is one of the best and worst coolants of summer.  Best because it tastes sooo good and worst because its sooo bad for you. Here's a delicious tisane recipe that's packed with healthy components like anti-oxidants and tannins that serves as a simply fantastic dessert substitute for a scorching hot day: 

Blueberry Smooth-Tea:

1. Two tablespoons of Blueberry Syrup herbal tea

2. Two tablespoons of White Peony Tea

3. One teaspoon of honey

4. 4 cups boiled water

5. Ice

Combine Blueberry Syrup, White Peony tea and honey in a teapot. Add boiled water and steep for 5 minutes. Strain the brewed tea over ice in a blender to your liking. Blend to your desired consistency. Transfer to an ice cream glass. Adjust sweetener if necessary. Add a swirl of whipping cream on top if you dare!